The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1887-11-29
A MAGNIFICENT PLACE.
How a Mississippi Ex-Governor
Farms on the Bottom.
STOCK RAISING AND GRASS CULTURE

VIcKsBURo, Miss, November 2o.-[Staff
Correspondence Constitution.
"And how many acres does he cultivate?"
"Well, could never get him to say, but 1
think it is about four thousand, though it may
be more.''
The speaker was Treasurer Hemingway, of
this state, and he was speaking of Ex-Governor
Alcorns plantation in Cohoama county.
Four thousand acres in cultivation is larger
than 90 per cent of the farms in Georgia, in
Guiding every bit of land in the tract. 1t is
question whether there are ten plantations in
Georgia that contain 1 900 acres, and yet here
is Mississippi planter who cultivates that
number. Governor Alcorns place is admitted
to be perhaps tie finest in the southwest A
man of largo wealth, he farms in the most
liberal manner. Governor Lowry said the
other day, speaking of him and his planta-
ton, there is nothing like it anywhere in the
country. 1t is more like an English baronial
seat than the river home of a southern plan
ter. 1t is lordly place, with everything on
the most magnificent scale. The house is a
perfect palace, built for comfort and enter
tainment and furnished with everything that
q refined and cultivated taste could suggest or
demand. The plantation is on tho same mag
nificent scale, and if it could be arranged it
would be treat to any one to spend day
upon that domain
The gin house on the Alcorn place is about
as costly as Peachtree mansion, it is esti-
mated that it could rot be replaced for less
than thirty thousand dollars. 1t is necessarily
obliged to be large, for within a yery few
months three thousand bales Of cotton have to
be marketed at that house. l tried to find out
how many gins were manipulated, one man
told me five and another said seven. Round
about where spent my early days. about this
number of gins marketed the cotton crop of
the entire county, and here you have them
performing the work of one plantation.
AS matter of course, the Alcorn place is
not a fair type of the average Mississippi plan
tation. 1t is true there are others like it in
Washington county, and the late Colonel Rich
ardSon perhaps could have surpassed it in
immensely and in interest. These large places
are only possible with great wealth, and this
characterizes Governor Alcorn and others who
run them, but it shows what can be done on
the river bottom, or in the
"Delta country" as the Mississippians are
pleased to call it. On these large places stock
raising and grass culture are carried on to a
very large extent The matter is in ltssnfancy,
it's true now, but alreadythe are stock farms
here where there are 60 dams for mules These
mares are worked to make the corn crop and
in harvesting the hay for the entire place.
This work Is not injurious and adds consider
able to the profit OF stock raising by making
the dam earn her salt in many ways. For the
purpose of raising mules, the half Percheron
mare is said to be the best. The finest pair of
mules ever saw were bred from this stock.
little of the heavy cumsiness characteristic of
the Percheron stock.
With hay the bermuda seems to be the
favorite here now, though it is not as common
az with us in Georgia. 1t is regularlarly cult-
waited, and the yield is prolific. During the
past few months hay has been very scarce, and
the price consequently high, and the stockmen
have seen the wisdom of raising largo quanti-
ties of it, In year or more there will not be
a bale of western hay imported in Mississippi.
stock farms q no devoted % IN
horses and mules, though these are produced
more numerously than any other variety, but
ON nearly all the large places you see fine cat
tie. The Jersey is the most common, though
the Durham and Holstein are frequently met
with. A gentleman said yesterday that the
advantage the Jersey had over the other breeds
in the south was the readiness with which it
adapted itself to its new surroundings.
With the Holsteins. they were good breeds
to have on rich bottom lands where food grew
luxuriantly, but for upland places, where
COW had to knock about right smart for her
living, the Holstein was not success. 1t is a
lazy animal; it does not know how to provide
for itself, and unless everything is in the great
est abundance about it, it will not thrive with
out feeding and constant watching. 1t is SUI
perior to the Jersey in that it is an excellent
beef cattle, and the COWS at the same time are
by no means poor mixers. The most popular
cattle down here are the Devon, for working
purposes. What magnificent steers they
make! / saw n yoke of tremendous fellows
that sold for $500, and their weight was some
thing over $500 pounds. The only objection
that could be urged against them was that
they were vicious and had local regulations
for being most excellent fighters.
"The great mistake with our cattle men,"
said a well known raiser, sis that they will
not separate their cattle. They allow all ages
and kinds to run together in the same pasture.
1 did the same thing once, until / found out
better; but now 1 keep my cattle apart. For
instance, place all the old cattle in the same
pasture, and, as near as possible, keep the ages
together You take a tWelYe-month calf and
put him into a pasture with a lot of mixed
cattle of all ages, and take another calf and
let him run with other calves, and at the end
of the year see the difference. The calf that
has been classified is in every respect worth
twice as much as the other, and will sell for
such. Breeders of fine cattle recognize this
fact, but ordinary raisers do not, and conse-
quently lose much by it,"
One of the best specimens Of winter proven
der in this state is mixed clover, which grows
as well as it does in the best sections of Ken
lucky. The planters put it in freely, and they
are rewarded with as splendid crop as one
could desire. In the spring and summer no
better grazing can be found than that afforded
by the prairie land, and cattle can be kept at o
nominal cost in large numbers. 1t is possible
to keep them up in winter by feeding cured
prairie grass to them, but this is seldom done
unless proyender is very scarce. The other.
and finer qualities of grass grow too luxuriant-
ly to make its crop ever failure, and he is a
very poor and Indifferent farmer who fails to
bale more than enough for winter consump-
ton.
In former letter quoted Governor Lowry
as saying that there were today more horse
and mule colts in the state than in twenty
years past. Everywhere find the statement
verified believe honestly, and if there was
any way of showing it, the fact would be as
and horses than Georgia and Alabama COM
bined There is hardly a plantation of any
size that has not every year from ten to sixty
upon it, while those regularly in the business,
OF course, show up larger numbers. Every
animal that is raised means one less TO import,
means from $50 to $500 kept in the state,
and If the southern planters could be taught
to know this, common reason would seem to
indicate that they would, at least, raise enough
for their own needs. "The cost Of raising a
mule y aaid n man 70 me- Gig not rnnrn than